Umbrella Chronicles#3-Apocalypse Rising PART 4
by Mark 'Manix' Odell
Summary: THE CONCLUSION TO THE UMBRELLA CHRONICLES!! The Umbrella conspiracy is finally revealed - and it's not a pleasant sight. Especially since Leon has a twin...PLEASE R&R!!


This is a restricted area  
  
How to begin? It seems so irrelevant to recall every single moment of that car ride up, to recall how many times Claire and I whispered to each other, to recall how silent Hunk stayed during the whole journey.   
All I remember was having just one conversation with Hunk.  
I edged towards the cab, where he drove, eyes alert and on the road ahead.  
"You got anybody?" I asked, suddenly.  
"Mm?" was the grunted reply.  
"Got anybody? A girl?"   
His face softened a little.  
"Yeah...A wife, and a little girl"  
"Sounds nice" I said.  
"It is" he said, still staring at the road "We live in this beautiful little house outside LA..." he seemed to drift off into nostalgia "...When I'm not working, I'm always there. I go home, kiss my wife, hug my four-year old girl...I throw a steak or two on the barbecue...Yeah, life's good when I don't have to work"  
"Don't you like your work?"   
He shrugged.  
"The hours stink, but the pay's good"  
"Do your family know what you do?"  
"They know what my job is - What I do is another matter entirely"  
I nodded.  
"I'd love to have a home life like yours - Two kids, a beautiful wife but no damned time to sit at home and have a meal - God I'd love that"  
"When you get round to it..." he said, smiling "You will love it - I promise you"  
"Ever doubt your employers? I mean - You've got morals, I can tell"  
"It's not my position really to doubt them. I do a job and they pay me. That's how I see it"  
"What if...Umbrella tried to endanger your family in some way"  
"Then I'd reconsider. But since my employers have given me no incentive to do so, then I just knuckle down and do my job"  
"You're aware of what the G-Virus does?" I asked, sternly "What it's capable of?"  
"No" he said, his voice hard "To me it's just some liquid in a glass vial - Nothing more"  
"Umbrella's viruses have killed thousands of people! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"  
"Look" his voice rose "People are born, people die, that's how life works - If Umbrella choose to kill thousands of people, that's not my bag!"  
"Do you have any sense of humanity? Any sense of decency?" I asked, angrily.  
"Yes!!" he roared back "I do!! That's why I care for my family, why I live, why I am determined to stay alive!!"  
"Do you know that Umbrella will not forgive you for doing this?! For being anywhere near me?!"  
"Yes - I do!"  
"So why are you still-"  
"Survival is the key - You don't shoot your friends in the back when they've given you a hand"  
"But-"  
"Believe me, Umbrella wouldn't and couldn't kill me - I'm too valuable to their cause"  
I sighed, and leaned back a little.  
"If you're confident that'll happen, then so be it" I turned to him "But remember whom your real friends are when the time comes - This story hasn't got a moral, y'know. None of these stories have morals, but when you get right down to it - I guess the whole idea's just to live"   
He nodded. Whether or not he'd taken in my philosophy didn't matter. As I rolled back to where Claire sat, we both stared at the scenery rushing past us, the greenness appearing dark blue in the night.  
Then, it was cut away as a flaring series of lights came into our vision, almost blinding me, and I blinked a few times to recover my sight.   
"It looks like..." Claire whispered, as Hunk brought the vehicle along the ridge of the hill.  
"An army base, right" I replied, as we looked down on it.  
It must have been about two or three miles squared, surrounded by wire, and illuminated by spotlights. It was filled with concrete and pre-fabricated buildings, and there was even a large day-glow painted helipad for night landings. Lights on the edges flashed brightly, at intervals of approximately five seconds.   
The whole place managed to look very military and utilitarian - Yet very, very creepy.  
Was it the darkened roofs of the buildings? Or just the fact that it was almost silent, despite the fact there were fifty odd soldiers in the compound below - all of them very human and very alert.  
"Pretty well manned" Claire muttered.  
I looked across the base...over to a concrete building with various wire fences running alongside it. It was outside the bases walls, funnily enough...Come to think of it, it didn't share the same military feel as the rest of the buildings did...  
"The cable-car station" I whispered "That's where Sherry and Chris are"  
"Okay" Claire turned quickly to Hunk "Prepared to drive us over there?"  
"Haven't got that much of a choice have I?" he said, climbing into the jeep once again.  
I exchanged a glance with Claire.  
"I think we'd better be careful with him" I said, softly "Don't push him"  
She nodded.  
"Let's meet up with Sherry and Chris"  
We climbed into the back, and Hunk started the engine, driving at a fairly slow speed, headlights doused as we tried to keep a low profile. We were in a restricted area. One single mistake, and we'd be captured.  
I felt the truck rumble beneath me, the rhythm of its movement almost soothing as I pressed my cheek against it. I looked my wife, also lying down, straight in the eyes.  
Claire.  
My wife.  
Twenty-one.  
Very beautiful  
I smiled. She smiled back. I suddenly had a whole lot more confidence in our mission - We'd live.   
I lay there, soundlessly. Hopefully, it wouldn't take long to get to the station. Once we were there? We could get out. But...we couldn't go. The Umbrella conspiracy still lived on.  
We'd just have to see.   
"Uh...Tell me something" Hunk asked from the front "Are you two...married?"  
"Yeah" Claire and I said in unison "What's the interest?"  
"And you've got two kids, right?"  
"Uh-huh"  
"Just...wanted to know" he replied, softly, before turning back to the road again.  
Bit of a weird question, isn't it?  
It's more important later on. But now? Irrelevant. That's precisely what it is.  
  
When the rhythmic rumble of the engine had ceased, we presumed Hunk had reached the cable-car station.   
"Okay, we're here" Hunk said, softly.  
We slipped off the back of the truck, and onto the tarmac, boots clicking slightly on the wet ground.   
We walked around to where Hunk stood, and he waved at a building directly in front of us.  
"That's it" he said.  
The building was one of those concrete monstrosities whose art deco appeared to be '1960's concrete brick' style, applied to the whole building.  
There wasn't a single curved edge I could see, nearly everything was right-angles. Rain glistened in a street lamp, and we could also see quite clearly that the lights were on.   
"Hey..." Claire whispered, excited "Maybe Chris and Sherry are in there!"  
"Then let's not waste any time" I said, running up the steps towards the main entrance, Claire immediately by my side.  
I tried the doors. They were public-access doors, so of course they weren't locked. I pushed them inwards, and I was hit by a blast of cool air as I stepped inside, Claire and Hunk by my side.  
It was a fairly large multi-tasking hall with a black and white tiled floor, a few doors that led out onto the platform, a ticket office, a cafeteria with a few stools by it - and two very familiar figures sitting on the stools, one of them practically face first in a very large bowl of ice-cream.  
"Hey!" Chris called "Looks like you finally caught up!"   
"Looks like it, huh?" Claire said, wryly.   
Sherry looked up, smiling. For the first time in ages, she looked really happy, her lips smeared with various flavours of ice cream.   
"It's great!" she managed, her mouth half full "There's loads of ice cream here"  
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling. It was good to see her in a good mood for a change.  
"Hey Sherry! Why don't you go and find us some ice cream or something?" Chris called to Sherry, who nodded and ran off into the kitchen.  
I was going to say I wasn't hungry, but Chris pulled Claire and me closer.   
"Look" he said softly "I didn't want to say this in front of Sherry, because I thought it might worry her...but I found this" he pulled out a piece of computer printout paper "I found a dead guard in the kitchen, got rid of the body...but this I think is what's going to get us moving"  
I looked at him oddly, and then at the paper.  
  
OPERATION OMEGA  
  
This plan is to be executed in the one week, so supervisors stay on your toes.  
  
1. The T-Virus will be introduced into the city of Burkitt at 0800 hours on the Friday, it should not take long before much of the population is zombified.   
PRIME TARGET: Bioject HQ  
  
2. Three rescue squads will be sent into act as decoys to the government - they will be 'rescuing civilians' so prime squads should avoid these squads at all costs. Deployment to the UOZ is essential. To assist your attack, many T-Creatures will be dropped onto the city to get rid of the Rescue Squads and other important (live) civilians who have got an idea as to what we are doing.  
  
3. This third phase will involve launching the T- Virus Chemical missiles at our primary targets: Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Berlin and Tokyo at 0420 hours on (the final) Saturday.  
  
4. Evacuation will commence promptly at 0430, since a nuclear missile is targeted to hit Burkitt at 0510.  
  
  
We looked at each other in absolute horror. So this was what they had been building up to. Infecting the worlds major cities with the T-Virus, the world would beg Umbrella to help because they'd claim to have 'a cure' and when the whole mess was over, guess who'd be sitting on top of the world with their dirty fat fingers in every governmental pie in the world. Umbrella would, of course. And who would be able to trace Umbrella's involvement in the infection? Nobody. Wiping out the town of Burkitt immediately after launching the T-Virus missiles would leave no trace - and their decoy of 'rescuing civilians' would certainly fool people. But who would be blamed? Who was the only pharmaceutical company in Raccoon with the capability of launching the missiles? Bioject, naturally. The plan was quite brilliant - But Umbrella obviously hadn't taken us into consideration.  
"I think" I said, through my teeth "That we've got to throw a spanner in the works"  
"Yeah" Claire agreed.   
"So I guess it's time to end this once and for all"   
  
Now we end this  
  
Chris and Sherry had been introduced to Hunk, although they treated him with more than a little suspicion, but I had to explain the situation to them fully before they were prepared to believe me.   
Hunk was still looking at the piece of paper as we walked out, shaking his head in absolute bewilderment.  
"Betrayed...by my employers...would you damn well believe it?!"  
"Yes" we said in unison. We knew what Umbrella were like.  
"Don't they have any human values?"   
"No"  
He looked at me, his face creased with worry.  
"Leon, my family is in LA"  
We all stopped, and looked at him. For the first time, this Umbrella employee was showing us that he was truly human. He was feeling what I had felt in Finzustown a few months ago - he was scared for his family. For his child. For his wife.   
"We'll stop the missiles" I said, reassuringly "Don't you worry - We've all got friends in these cities we want to save"  
"Then I think I'll help you" Hunk said, smiling. It was a casual, impish grin. Back to his old self.  
"Great" I said "So how do we get in?"  
Hunk walked across the road, and looked over the whole base. He appeared to be making some kinds of calculations.  
"Right" he said "They won't have bothered electrifying the fence for such a short term project - So that's an option"  
"Barbed wire, Mr. Hunk" Chris said "I think that's a slight problem"  
"Got any wire cutters?"  
"Oh yeah, that's the sort of stuff I carry around all the time" Chris said, sarcastically.   
Hunk narrowed his eyes.  
"Sarcasm is unnecessary" Hunk whispered.  
"Look, it's going to be a while before I can fully trust you" Chris stated, voice cold "So get used to it for now"  
"Chris!" Claire exclaimed, annoyed.  
Chris glared at Hunk, before stepping back.  
"Well, I've got some clipping tools that may work - It's part of my soldier kit, as it were"  
Hunk smiled, helpfully.  
"Fine. 'May' is better than 'Won't' in my book" I said, already turning to go.  
"Wait a minute!" Hunk called.   
I stopped, and turned back to him.  
He was looking seriously at me, as were the others. I felt like I was on an identity parade.  
"Inside's going to be pretty damn dangerous - You've got humans to fight, humans who have their own minds, and humans who have guns"  
"I know" I said, a little irritably. As if I hadn't prepared for that already!  
"And there's going to be some big cheeses from Umbrella there, probably those in charge of White Umbrella, the Bio-weapons division - So they've probably got their elite guards there"  
"Elite guards?" Claire asked.  
"Two mysterious characters" Hunk said, as if he was telling a ghost story "Nobody knows exactly where they came from, or who they are although it's rumoured they're brother and sister. They're the best - You look at the hi-scores in the Umbrella challenge lists - Guess who's at the top?"  
"Let me guess" Chris said, folding his arms "Those two?"  
"They call themselves JL and LJ, nobody knows which is which"  
"I see" I said "And they pose a danger, huh?"  
"There's no guarantee we'll meet them" he said "But be wary, for gods sake"  
I nodded, hurriedly.  
"Fine, fine, fine...Are we going?"  
  
I looked up the metal fence, at its glistening, twisted yet organised form, razor sharp twisted wire at the top of the fence.   
It was still raining, and we'd barely had time to dry in the Cable-car station before we were soaked again. I was hoping that I would die an old happy man, not of pneumonia. Well, as you can tell from the fact that I'm WRITING this, that I haven't done any of the two yet - So keep going, as did I.  
I hated climbing fences. I don't have any natural phobias - Apart from one. Vertigo. I hate heights, and even the smallest of heights, such as that fence, put me on edge. Pathetic isn't it? I've got no real problem with anything else, zombies and deserted, infested mental asylums - but I hate twenty-foot drops.  
I swallowed.   
"Going to climb the fence, Leon?" Chris asked.  
"Uh...yeah" I managed.  
Claire whispered something to Chris.  
"What...he's...." I heard Chris snigger "...But it's only twenty feet tall!"  
"Don't be unfair!" I heard Claire say annoyed "You're terrified of snakes"  
There was a snigger from Sherry.  
"Snakes..." Sherry giggled.  
"Well, they can be poisonous!" he snapped.  
I smiled to myself, and mounted the fence. I slowly but surely climbed up, my boots finding footholds in the chinks of the wire fence, staring upwards all the time. As I reached the top, I felt the wire scrape against my cheek. I winced.  
"Ah, Jeez!" I exclaimed.  
"You okay?" Claire called "I'm coming up with the pliers!"  
I clung to the fence, trying not to think that if I made even a slight wrong movement, I'd fall.   
Just don't think about it, Kennedy...  
Claire reached my side, and looked at me, smiling.  
"Just don't think about it"  
"I'm trying not to" I replied, smiling weakly.  
"Look, I'll do the cutting if you're not too happy with it-"  
"No" I interjected "I can do this"  
She handed me the pliers, and shakily, I reached up to cut the wire. I squeezed, and a strand came loose. After some work on it, as if it was a primrose bush that needed urgent trimming, I had finally cleared a space. I climbed over, and, face to face with Claire on the other side, smiled and thankfully climbed down.  
It didn't take long for all of us to be on the other side, although Sherry was nearly as bad as me. I wondered if Vertigo was also genetic.   
We were hidden behind a low concrete building in a pool of darkness, the whole area in front of us lit up like a football stadium.  
I could spot thirty odd guards out in the light, some standing to a rigid attention, others leaning against walls enjoying a cigarette.  
"Thirty just out there" I whispered "This is not going to be easy"  
"What we need" Claire replied "Is a distraction"  
"Using what?"  
Hunk straightened up, and handed me his gun.  
"Hey, what are you-?"  
"I'll distract them long enough for you to get to the main control building - Just make sure nobody gets to the alarms, lock the outer doors and you should be able to get up to the main control deck"  
Hunk bowed at us, all of us practically speechless, and he walked into the light, hands held high.  
We could hear the shouting of the protesting guards - which was all we needed as a signal. Slipping around the side of the building, we ran through the shadows cast by the series of prefabricated and concrete buildings set in organised grid squares - It was like a mathematicians dream.  
  
Hopefully, Hunk's 'distraction' would hold the guards for long enough so that we'd be able to get up to the command room where they were planning on launching the missiles. With only thirty-five minutes until launch we didn't have a lot of time.  
"HALT!!" I heard a voice yell. I turned my head, and saw two guards, dressed in black, chasing us down through the buildings.   
Damn!  
I could see the control building...not far...  
The gap between us and the building grew smaller and smaller...  
"DON'T MOVE!!"  
Two more black-clad soldiers leapt out in front of us, assault rifles poised, faces hidden by gas masks.  
Oh shit.  
I skidded to a stop, the others stopping too. We didn't even have time to pull our weapons out the guards roughly grabbed us and removed our weapons.  
"MOVE!" One said, jabbing me roughly in the back.  
"Make up your mind" Sherry muttered.  
We were pushed out into the blinding light, stinging my eyes like two suns were targeting me specifically, and I raised my arm to shield myself from their glare. I staggered across the wet ground, as if I was just learning to walk again, but it was mainly because of the blow I'd been delivered by the Umbrella soldier.   
I flopped onto the ground, Claire landing beside me. I pushed my hands against the concrete ground, and forced myself into an upright position.   
Used to the light now, I sat on my knees as if I was a prisoner-of-war awaiting that gunshot to the head to end my misery and life.  
I heard a clicking, it sounded like somebody was drumming quite slowly but rhythmically on the concrete - I looked up, and saw two men in suits, accompanied by two black figures, like angels of death, their faces shrouded by black gas-masks.  
They also carried MP5's.  
I swallowed, trying not to think of what they had in mind for us.  
Gunshot? Perhaps, or maybe they want us to suffer a little first...  
The latter was the true one.  
The two suited men stood overlooking us, grey and black hair sprinkling the head of the first one, a man who looked slightly more kindly than the other man, who looked like a predatory reptile. The second man had thicker, black hair, and his mouth was twisted with an amused malevolence, while the first man just looked bemused.   
They both stood straight, showing no signs of physical deterioration at all - Their two soldiers watching over them, silently.  
The first of the suits spoke first, with a strong thespian voice.  
"Well, well, well! It's our rebels - At last in front of those they are attempting to destroy"  
They were unflinching, looking down on us.  
"We were thinking of destroying you too" the second man said, in a razor sharp voice that sounded like he'd been eating gravel for a large portion of his life.  
"What denied you the pleasure?" I said, sarcastically.  
"We've decided on a fate worse than death" the first man replied, without a twinge of annoyance "It's living"  
"How terrible" Chris added, equally sarcastic as me.  
"Living with the truth"  
We all looked at each other.  
"What truth?"  
"It's bad, very bad" the second man said.  
"Please, stand up" the first man suddenly interjected "I hate trying to talk to people when it's not a face to face talk"  
Prompted by the soldiers, we stood up, like schoolchildren being taught how to leave class.  
"Do you know that ignorance really is bliss?" the second man said "It really is good not to know some things - Then we earthlings can get on blissfully unaware of the horror that surrounds us"  
"I'm afraid your punishment for doing what you have done is to know exactly how you are all involved in Umbrella in some ways - It's soul destroying material" the other man said, as if he was enjoying the whole fiasco.  
There was a sudden burst of gunfire, and we all turned to see soldiers running in the direction of the command building, a few screaming as they were cut down by a mysterious killer from the darkness.  
Just for a moment, hope flared inside me - before the gunfire was cut off by a soft thump, indicating that the assailant had been delivered a blow from behind.   
Our last hope died with the sound.   
A few guards called "WE GOT HER!!"  
"Bring her here" one of the suited men ordered.  
Her?  
We turned to where the soldiers were dragging out the attacker, a very familiar, short-haired strong spirited lady who was infatuated with a certain person not far away. It was-  
"Jill?!" Chris asked, astonished.   
For it was. She was dumped unceremoniously by my side, wincing and rubbing her head.  
"Jill, what are you doing here?"  
"Saving your asses" she replied "I knew this was where you'd gone, and I figured I could find you right where Umbrella were positioned"  
"One, how did you get here and two, how did you know Umbrella were here?" Claire asked the questions we all wanted to ask.  
"One, I drove in from the other side of town, but how I got here is pretty irrelevant. Two, that friend of yours...Stan, isn't it Chris?"  
Chris nodded.  
"Well he called to say he wanted me to deliver some new info he'd discovered - Something about an Operation Omega?"  
Chris rolled his eyes.  
"Great timing Stan" I heard him mutter.  
"Enough" the second suited man said, sternly "I think you've chatted enough. In fact, it's probably just as well Ms. Valentine dropped in for our little talk"  
"Why?" I asked, sourly.  
"Because it's necessary" he said. There was a pause, and then he smiled "Where shall we begin?"  
"I know - Let's tell them 'the plot'" the first man said, a little excited.  
"Very well" the second man kept his distance as he walked up and down. He then began the most incredible, horrible and heart-breaking story of betrayal and lies that I'd ever heard. I share it with you now.  
  
The Last Revelation  
"The ultimate irony" the second man said, smiling nastily "Is that White Umbrella is something you are all involved in and yet - here you are trying to destroy it. If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't even be here"  
"What the hell are you talking about?" I said, coldly.  
"Our operations centre around two things - One, our bio-weapons research, which is the largest part. The second part is the maintaining our genetic research"  
"Maintaining genetic research?" Claire asked.  
"Exactly. You see, we've known how to clone human beings for over fifteen years, and how to download data into the brain for about five or six"  
We were all equally shocked.   
"Clones?" Jill asked, eyes narrowing.  
"Yes" the second man said "Human clones, perfect in every detail to their original, identical abilities and guaranteed to hate their original for merely being them. I think it was fourteen odd years ago, we learned how to accelerate the growth of a clone through its incubation period, and how it could then be slowed when it finally reached the right age. Dr. William Birkin, your father Leon" he indicated me. I bit my lip, trying not to swear at him "Was worried about anything that should endanger his son and daughter's lives. So he requested that they had copies created of them, genetically identical people who could grow up like his children would if they were ever hurt. It was a personal request, which White Umbrella would not normally have accepted, but since they needed to try out their mew found technology for real anyway, they said yes"  
I was reeling. A clone. An identical copy of me? Where was he? If so...could we meet up? Would it be possible for us to sit down and have a talk...maybe even...  
Suddenly, something else interrupted my train of thought.  
"Wait a moment...you said sister...but fourteen years ago Sherry wasn't born!"  
The second man laughed loudly, a nasty, amused laugh that rolled into the night sky.  
"Oh! Of course! You don't know!"   
"Another sister?" Chris asked, confused.  
"A twin to be precise - Nobody really knew about her, since it was commonly held that Birkin only had a son and daughter. Yes, they did know about you Leon" the man was picking me out more often than I liked.  
"The daughter was given away at the same time as you were Leon - And you never knew about her"  
"So...who is the daughter?" I asked, softly.  
"Why don't you let her clone tell you?" the man said, and motioned one of the black clad soldiers to step forwards.  
The soldier put down her rifle, and then released the catches of her mask. She pulled away the mask that came away in one pull. Strands of brown hair fell in front of her face before she threw her hair back from her face.  
Oh my god.  
It was...it couldn't be...  
"Meet JL - Or if you want to call her by this name...Jill Valentine"  
We all gasped. Jill, the real one, was looking baffled and shocked at the same time.   
"It's nice to meet your originals" Jill's clone said, smiling at her own self with a look of contempt in her eyes, burning like night fires.  
Jill...was...my twin? Knowing Sherry was my sister was difficult enough without having to deal with the knowledge that my twin sister was Jill Valentine, another person I'd only met a short time ago. Wait a second...If Chris was in love with Jill...who was my sister and therefore technically Claire's sister in law - That would make Chris...  
Oh dear.  
The rain soaking Jill's hair made her look like something the cat dragged in, and she looked as miserable as something that had been dragged in by a cat.  
"But...I never knew..." she muttered.  
"We never do" her copy said, contemptuously "Do we, JILL?"  
She practically spat out her name.  
"So...if you're the copy of me...who's LJ?" Jill asked, softly.  
On cue, LJ stepped forward, and clicked the release catches on his gas mask. He slowly took it off, light spilling onto his face as he withdrew it, storing it under his arm. He smiled at me.  
My jaw dropped.  
It's not very often you come face to face with somebody who looks identical to you in every single respect.  
LJ....was....me?  
"My god" Claire breathed "You're-"  
My double laughed softly.  
"Right. I'm your husband's clone - Perfect in every single respect, huh, Jill?" he was talking to his Jill, the cloned Jill.  
"Mmm...of course" she said as he took her up in his arms, both of them looking at each other with that sort of stare that would be fine with courting couples but just plain nauseating with brother and sister.   
I seriously wanted to vomit.  
When he kissed her I nearly threw up.  
"Uh...Do you mind if I puke here or do you want to step closer so I can puke on you?" I asked, with distaste in my voice. They turned to me slowly, eyes cold and angry.  
"All we've got is each other - You could at least be nice about the fact we have no parents"  
My copy glared at me - I could literally feel the flames he was directing at me. He really was angry with me. Why?   
I...just didn't know...but somehow, I just dreaded that he'd make me realise why.   
"The biggest problem with the world today" Jill's clone said "Is that so many people are very selfish - Don't you think so?"  
I stared at her, dumbfounded.  
"What... do you mean?" I asked slowly, as if I was talking to children.  
She looked at me.  
"I'm saying that all some of us have is each other - We haven't been able to all enjoy happy, playful childhoods neither have we all had friends or those to look after us"  
"And I guess that you're one of those children?" Chris asked.  
"WE" Jill's clone corrected "Me and my brother, here"  
"What makes you think that you're so special?" Claire asked.  
"How many clones are better than their originals?" my replica replied, a little maliciously "Stronger, less prone to the wrong types of emotion - superior in every way"  
As well as being insulted and dumbfounded, I was also angry at being described as inferior to an evil version of myself. However, there was also something inside me that had been growing for a few minutes as my doppelganger had talked.  
A great feeling of...was it sadness? Betrayal?  
Whatever it was, it permeated my being - And for some reason I was trying to hold back tears.   
"Whassamatter?" my clone asked me in a mockingly sad tone of voice "Feel...unhappy?"  
"Why are you doing this to us?" I croaked.  
"If you want to know - I'll tell you in a minute"  
The two suited men who had remained silent for quite a while now stepped forwards, and the second man was the one who spoke next.  
"Alright! If you wish to interrogate any prisoners do so in a few minutes. Now, Mr. Chris Redfield too has something to be told"  
We all turned to look at Chris, who looked baffled.  
"I don't know what you're talking about" he said.  
"You won't" my clone said, grinning.  
"I just feel that Mr. Untouched here who is the all-American boy may get a little stunned when he discovers who he really is"  
"And you know who I really am?" Chris said, eyebrow raised.  
"How about knowing that it all began with a clone"   
"Are we surprised?"   
"There was another clone, who had nothing to do with Leon and his twin sister. The resulting person was used as a mindless assassin, a man who'd kill without remorse or pity"  
"So why...aren't there any of those around?" Chris asked.  
"Because they were fallible - They could develop emotion, and many rebelled - So we either terminated them or blended them into society with full identities"  
You could almost feel the build up. Somehow, I knew what was coming. I was a mental wreck, I was nearly screaming for my world to be fake, for everything to be a dream. But the rai nwas so real, the man's tones so crisp that I knew it could not be, as I wanted it to be, a dream.  
"This particular clone was, at a youngish age, put into the care of a prominent army officer - Whose name was Colonel Samuel Redfield"   
Claire gaped.  
"That's my dad!"  
"Precisely" one of the men grinned an evil grin.  
Chris looked up at him, his face filled with fear and dread.  
"No..." he whispered, in that voice that Luke Skywalker had used on Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes back - but this time for real "...That's not true!!"  
"Do I have to say it again?!" the man snapped "You were an assassin for Umbrella!"  
Chris's lip quavered, his eyes wide and scared - but then he hung his ehad, accepting his past.  
I heard a sob. It was from Claire.  
"How...how come I don't remember anything?" she asked, voice quavering.   
"We changed your memories - We could quite easily remove and put in new memories...Your father agreed that you couldn't just accept a new brother, so he let us change your memories, to allow him a special place in your heart" the first man's voice was almost sympathetic.  
"I...I'm a single child..." Claire whispered, tears streaming down her face. I felt the same. We all felt betrayed, chewed up and spat out.  
"What about Rebecca?" Chris asked "Is she...normal?"  
"I'm afraid not - She was the daughter of Dr. Scott Kennedy after all"  
I was no longer surprised. I did feel as if somebody had been slicing up my heart throughout the entire conversation, savagely, and with a fire-axe.   
"You mean - She'd my foster-father's real daughter? Why did he let her go?" I asked, softly.  
"He didn't want to - He never met her. She became her mother's daughter - who was divorced from Kennedy and then re-married a gentleman called Jack Chambers - And that is really it. We kept her away to separate her from Birkin's real son and any others, and so we all kept you apart - But here you are together again"  
"Like a family reunion, huh?" Jill's clone said, cocking her head at an angle.  
I exchanged a look with my twin sister, and then my little sister. Sherry was crying too.   
I turned away, unable to watch.  
"Story time's over, kiddies" my clone said "Guards! Take all of them, apart from Jill and Leon whom I want in that empty storehouse for a while - My sister and I have some unfinished business"   
He glared at me - eyes alight. I didn't like what they had in mind.  
"Take the others to the temporary prison level on the upper floor of the main building - Keep them under constant watch"  
One of the other soldiers nodded, and seven soldiers came and grabbed Sherry, Claire and Chris, who was a broken man.   
They were dragged off, and I turned to see them go - but I felt my clone grab my collar and drag me towards the warehouse.  
"You're coming with me you little bastard" he hissed.  
I heard Jill cry out, and I turned to see her clone holding her by the throat, and dragging her not far behind me, her face a picture of sickening sadistic pleasure.   
  
Do you know what pain feels like?  
  
  
I was thrown face first into the floor, I was just able to prevent the ground from breaking my nose as I brought my hands in front of me to shield myself from the drop.   
I clawed the floor and cried out as my other self kicked me hard in the back. God, it hurt. Soon I was moaning in pain, and I knew I couldn't do anything about it.  
Angry, tired and hurt I was in no fit state to fight. I looked blearily up at my clone, who looked down on me with a face twisted with malevolence.   
"LEON!" Jill, my sister cried.  
I just knew that she was being kicked.  
"Your sister's being given the same treatment as you, huh?" my clone said, nastily.  
"She...hasn't...done...anything..." I replied, wincing with each word.  
He looked at me with a quizzical lopsided expression.  
"Really?"  
I gazed into his eyes.  
I tried to pinpoint what he was getting at.  
Wait a second...I'd seen that emotion before...It was with Ada...  
Jealousy. Jealousy? Why? What had I done that could ever make him jealous of me? I didn't have an enviable life. Far from it.  
"What have we done wrong?" I asked matter-of-factly, but with a calm and cold manner that I was trying to make sound threatening.  
He wasn't moved, but he did answer.  
"My sister and me..." he took her on his arm as we lay sprawled on the cold concrete at their feet "...were born together, we grew together and lived forever together - Everyday we were alone! Everyday we spent, never leaving each others sides as we were pushed through something like an education, trained as Umbrella soldiers...and my sister, my love, was all I had"  
"Your sister is your love?" I asked, with distaste "Ugh..."  
I watched as my clone stroked his sister's cheek and kissed her on the neck, before drawing back to me, and nodded.  
"My only love. We never had anybody else to rely on. We were alone..." his voice faded.  
Then, Jill II, the other Jill took over.  
"We never had any parents like you did, we never had any friends like you did, we never had any relatives like you did, we weren't loved like you were...You had everything we didn't...now it's time for payback" she said the last words with venom in her voice.  
"So much pain...Ever since we've worked with Umbrella - We were the ones who helped release the virus in the mansion estate, we were the ones who chose to plant Albert Wesker, we were the ones who ordered the T-90 in to the Police Station to deal with you, we gave the order to steal the G-Virus whatever it took, we chose to kill off the STARS with the Nemesis, ands then send another after you on Angel Island, we chose to kidnap your children and lure you straight into hell - But every time you escaped. Well, guess what...you're going to suffer for everything you did and deserved..."  
I looked my sister in the eyes. She was terrified. So was I. I was a broken man, unable to take much more.  
"We've decided to give you a tour-de-force experience of precisely how we've felt - Fourteen years worth of it in literally a second"  
My other self grinned, evilly.  
"You're married, right?"  
I took offence at what he could have been suggesting.  
"TOUCH CLAIRE AND YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!!" I yelled, enraged.  
He shook his head, tutting.  
"It's got nothing to do with her - I just wanted to make sure your wedding ring was on the right hand"  
I frowned at him.  
"What the hell are you talking about?"  
"It would be a pity for you to lose it"  
I almost laughed at him. I was bemused by his threat.  
I smiled.  
"Think it's funny?!" Jill II snapped "I'm sure you'll find it hysterical when you see what we've got in mind!"  
I suddenly felt my other self pin my left arm to the ground, and the other Jill hold my other arm down with her foot on my leg. I couldn't budge.  
"Leon!"   
Jill tried to strike her clone across the head, but her clone grabbed her and in one movement threw her to the ground beside me.  
"Watch..." she hissed "Watch your brother..."  
I saw Leon II remove something from his belt...a wickedly sharp but still quite thick hunting knife.  
What the...?   
Suddenly I knew what he had in mind. I panicked, started to thrash around, tried to scream but Jill II roughly placed a hand on my mouth as she held my sister's throat at the same time.  
"Here it comes!" my clone said with a sadistic delight. I felt him wedge open my fingers, and tuck my little finger and my middle finger underneath my hand.   
I saw him raise the knife, and he caught my eye. For a moment, I stared at him fearfully, desperately trying to convince him that he was doing the wrong thing.  
But he didn't care.  
He brought the knife down.  
Jill said later on that she heard a clean crack and a slight fleshy sound, accompanied by a metal shriek as the knife hit the ground.  
But I wouldn't have heard it.  
I was too busy screaming.   
As if it had been building up like the pressure inside of a shaken beer can, pain exploded out of my body, the agony making stars appear in front of my eyes as I cried out in anguish.  
He let go of my arm, and I rolled onto my side, clutching my bleeding hand.  
I slowly raised it up in front of my eyes. I tears poured from my eyes in the sheer pain and shock of seeing my mutilated hand. For my left hand now only had four fingers. Where the ring finger had been was just a bloody stump, where scarlet blood flowed freely down my hand and onto my wrist. I held it under my armpit to put pressure on the stump, in the hope it would stop bleeding soon.   
I turned, in my suffering, to see Jill being pinned down too. Wincing and moaning in pain, I staggered over to kick my clone hard in the head.  
This pain was more than I'd ever felt before. I'd felt pain. I'd had my leg broken by a Nemesis, I'd been shot for gods sakes. But this hurt more than any pain. It was the pain of betrayal, the pain of knowing that the man who had mutilated me in this way was of my flesh and blood...  
Jill's scream filled the air as the twisted psychopath that was my clone and his sister gave Jill the same treatment.  
I yelled out in anger.  
By now, I had to do something. Even in my pain, I grabbed the pistol in my clone's belt, and pointed it at his head.  
"Freeze you bastard...you bastard..." I nearly broke down as he turned towards me, Jill still writhing on the floor in agony.  
"You...bastard...cut my frigging finger...off you...bastard..." I was nearly crying again.  
"Come now Leon" my clone said, coldly "You wouldn't want to do that - Especially since we've got a medical kit to seal up your wounds. We wanted you to suffer, not to die"  
My pistol hand was shaking.  
"Leave...Jill...alone..." I said.  
My clone shrugged, and nodded to his 'love'.  
She hoisted Jill up, and pushed her into my arms. Jill was crying.  
"My...finger..." she moaned, tearfully.   
"Put the gun down and not only will we tend to your wounds, but we'll give you back to your friends too!" My clone smiled.  
I was in no position to argue. I just wanted my sister to be safe. I threw the gun down, which my clone picked up. Then, he pulled out a small container from his sidepack. It looked like a complicated battery recharger, but with a small tank of something built into it - and he took my finger, and dropped it inside the container, which he sealed shut with a hiss of gas.  
"I'm preserving it" he explained, and then Jill II pulled out her medical kit "Now why don't you sit down and let us deal with those very nasty wounds of yours"  
I glared at him. Even as Jill's clone cleaned up and bandaged my stump of a finger tightly. Even as Jill II was able to stop the bleeding and prevent me from bleeding to death, I gritted my teeth.   
He would pay. For my finger, Jill's, and my life that he'd so carefully tried to wreck with Umbrella. Oh yes. He would definitely pay.  
  
We were taken to the Master HQ soon afterwards. I couldn't concentrate on exactly where I was going, so wrapped up in my own pain and nausea - I was aware of a door being unlocked, and then opening, and that I was thrown in, followed by Jill.  
The room we were in looked like a disused medical bay - It had some beds, seats and tables. It was in here the others were. Chris was sitting at a table, head in his hands. I couldn't see his face. I didn't want to see his anger, to see his despair and embarrassment. Two guards in the room raised their rifles threateningly.  
I saw Claire leap upwards, and she ran towards me, hugging me.  
"Thank god you're alive...we thought that you were dead..."  
I smiled at her weakly, but I winced.  
"What's the matter?" she asked, confused.   
Oh yeah - She couldn't see my finger.  
"Don't worry - It's not that much to worry about" I said, weakly.  
Claire pulled my hand from underneath my armpit. She saw the reddish bandaged stump, and her face contorted in shock and anger.  
"What the fu....what the..."  
"Took one of my fingers" I explained.  
"They...cut off your left ring-finger?!" she asked, in absolute shock.  
"Yeah" I muttered.  
She turned her face to look at my clone...who she regarded with, I could see, the kind of look that comes under the category 'absolute hatred'   
"You bastard..." I heard her say, very softly "You...cut off one of my husbands fingers..."  
"Well, at least his wedding ring's still on his right hand" Leon II said, cheerfully.  
Then, the door slammed behind us, and my clone and his sister were gone.  
I fell onto the bed.  
"That hurt...so much..." I muttered.  
Jill sat down beside me, her face unsmiling.  
She raised up her own bandaged hand.  
"Why...?" she asked "Why did they do this?"  
"Because they're freaks..." I replied.  
I turned to look at her.  
"You know...I didn't know you were my twin sister...I didn't...It's just taken a while for it to sink in..."  
She smiled at me, weakly.  
"And here's me thinking I was always an only child" she whispered.  
I embraced her, she fell against me, crying into my shoulder.   
Emotion.  
Sadness.  
Joy.  
Fear.  
I felt her tears soak my shirt, and I stroked her hair, trying to soothe her.  
When she sat up again, she wiped the tears from her eyes.  
"Sorry about that...I just..."  
She suddenly seemed to remember something, and she snapped her head around to look at Claire, who'd been standing back, allowing us to have a brother-sister moment.  
"Where's Chris?"   
Claire pointed towards her supposed brother in the corner, who looked like a discarded string puppet, sagging as if he bore the world on his shoulders.  
"Chris..." I hear her whisper "...Please listen to me"  
He looked up, face torn apart with emotion.  
"Jill..." he croaked "...I'm not who you thought I was"  
"Yes you are" she said.  
"No...I'm an ex-assassin, somebody who killed men and women without mercy - I mean, god knows how long my hit list is!!"  
"No" Jill said firmly "You're a good man with morals, a man who fights the good fight"  
"Forget about me..." Chris said, bowing his head "Please, just forget you ever knew me...I could feel better that way"  
"NO!"   
The tone of Jill's voice was so sharp it made all of us step back.  
"You are a man who is loved! By his sister, by his friends..." she licked her lips "...And by me"  
He looked up at her, confused.  
"I have always loved you, Chris" she said, softly "Sometimes...It's so strong I feel I just can't take it"  
He looked at her, eyes clear and knowing.  
Please, go for it Chris, go for it...  
He stood up, and put his arms around her waist.  
"Jill...I've always loved you too...I..."  
"Don't say anything else" Jill replied "I know what you're going to say"  
"Will you hurry up and kiss already?" I said, almost grinning.  
Jill smiled at me.  
"The pleasure's all mine" she said, and kissed Chris full on the mouth.  
  
It was probably ten minutes before we finally breathed out again. Sherry was tapping her watch as she watched the couple enjoying their...moment.  
"Is it possible for two people to breathe for that long?" she asked.  
"I don't know" Claire said, and turned to me "But I bet I can break the record!" she grinned.  
I rolled my eyes.  
  
When the whole thing had finally stopped, the four adults in the room who had been kissing (including me) were red, panting and grinning.  
Sherry looked at us, bemused.  
"Well if you've all quite finished" she said "I think we'd better think about escape"  
I turned around to see one of our two guards enter the room, and I looked at Chris. He winked. I winked back.  
The single wink basically said Take 'em down.  
We didn't have any weapons - But I decided to play it cool. I casually sauntered up to one of the guards, who raised his gun, protectively.  
"Uh...who goes there...Uh...I mean...halt...Friend or foe..."  
He was obviously nervous at guarding several very dangerous people enter the room. He obviously wasn't too smart either.  
"Which would you prefer?" I asked, smiling.  
He gave me a strange look.   
I brought up my knee as hard as I could into his groin.  
"GAH!" he exclaimed as he toppled onto his knees, at which point both Claire and Chris whacked him over the head with the heavy wooden chairs.  
I grabbed the MP5 he carried, and nodded to Chris.  
"Lure the next one in" I said.  
"Leave it to me" Jill said, grinning.   
She stepped out into the corridor. Then, in her sexiest voice:  
"Oh guard? My bra-strap's a bit loose...could you come and help me?"   
It was, to any man apart from me who was her brother, an irresistible invitation.  
As soon as the inanely grinning man stepped through the doorway, My gun was at his head.  
"Now listen to me" I hissed "Put down your gun, ammo and any knives which you may have on you and then get down on your knees with your hands up"  
The man's mood had changed remarkably quickly, becoming terrified in the single moment I pressed the barrel to his temple.   
He obeyed, pulling off his weapon, and throwing his extra ammo clips to the floor. I took two out of the four of them, and Chris picked up his weapon and extra ammo.  
We all stepped out of the door, and slammed it behind us, and with a click it was locked.  
"Yeah!" Sherry exclaimed joyfully "We're out!"  
  
Thine be the Glory  
  
We had fifteen minutes.  
We knew this now, with all the time we'd spent locked up or being tortured, we now had very little time until eight T-Virus laden rockets would impact on eight of the world's major cities.   
Fifteen minutes between life and death.  
Bringing two guards around the corner and then scavenging their weapons for the ladies to use wasn't hard - What was hard would be getting upstairs knowing that we had to  
a) Disarm eight missiles, and then b) Probably facing Leon II & Jill II once we got up there.  
As we took the stairs up, boots clattering on the concrete tiled floor, I wondered where Hunk had gone.  
None of us really knew either.   
"Uh, Claire?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Where's Hunk?"  
She looked at me as we took each flight of steps up, and wrinkled an eyebrow.  
"I...don't know!" she turned to Chris "Chris! Where's Hunk?"  
"I don't know!" he replied "Why do you want to know?"  
"Just want to know where he is!" I called as we ran up each set up steps.  
Three guards stood above us. They looked at us - and did a double take.  
Four bullets slammed into the chest of the first man before he could even pull out his weapon, and two shots from Claire's gun that thudded into his throat and forehead, sending him toppling backwards.  
"Funny" Jill said "Where's the rest of the garrison?"  
The answer came from outside. There was a sudden burst of gunfire, a mixture of screams and growls that made my blood freeze. We ran to the nearest window, and yanking open the blind we looked out into the main courtyard, where we had been not so long ago.   
It was crawling with Umbrella guards...and hunters. There were lots of them, and the soldiers were rapidly being torn to shreds as they sent their gunfire into the mass of creatures. Where they'd come from I wasn't sure. It certainly didn't matter either.  
"We've got to get to the main control room" I said "If we don't - BANG! There goes the world"  
"I heard one of the troops talking about an evacuation via helicopter, and he said it was on the roof of this building - It's big enough"  
That was Sherry.  
"At least we've got an escape route" Claire said "But we'd better go anyway"  
We were now running full speed up the stairs, sprinting up the steps as if the pot of gold was at the top.   
  
The control room had seven people in it when we quietly snuck in, hiding behind the consoles nearest to the walls as we peeked over to look at the seven people. It was my clone, Jill's clone and the two suited men, whom we now knew to be Frasier and Watts (in that order) according to their security passes, which lay strewn on the floor. Like bait. I had no intention of touching the cards yet. The other three were two armed guards...and Agent Hunk. Hunk was standing there, half like a prisoner and half like a soldier. He was watching Frasier and Watts carefully.  
"Not long now Tom" Frasier, or the first suited man, said eagerly.  
"Not long at all" Watts replied   
"Do you think this venture of ours will make us rich, or d'you think that Umbrella might try to bargain?"  
"I'm not sure - But I don't doubt they'll be sneaky with us"  
"Sir" my clone said "There is a danger - I don't doubt that my original will try to escape, and that he's after our blood"  
"That's a risk we will have to take" Frasier snapped "Why were you so rough with him anyway?! His dear sister isn't exactly too pleased with her own torture either!"  
"I'm sorry sir" my clone tightened his fist "But...It was personal"   
"No shit" I said, standing up with the others raising their own weapons on the crowd.  
They all turned to look at us, my clone surprised but not moved, Watts and Frasier taking a step back and the two armed men levelling their weapons.  
"So..." Watts said "You're here - Well I might as well say now that you're too late, nearly ten minutes until we launch the missiles. You're out of time. It's over"  
"It ain't over until the fat lady sings" I said "And she hasn't sung yet"  
"And even if you do stop the missiles - The Nuclear warhead due to hit the town in twenty-minutes will end your little rebellion"  
I narrowed my eyes.  
"I thought it was going to hit at 0510"  
"Sorry - Management decision at the last minute took the timer back by nearly half an hour. It's going to end much sooner than you think"  
"True" Chris said "For you"  
"Well excuse me, but I think that the assassin wants to have a word!" Watts said, bemused.  
"It's what I was, but not what I am now - So why don't you just be nice and hand over your disarming key for each missile, huh?"  
We all stepped forward into the area on the floor that doubled for our stalemate position.   
"Somehow, I don't think so"  
Weapons pointed at each other. Four weapons on each side.   
Stalemate.  
"Well, now it's up to you Hunk" Frasier said, turning to Hunk "Which side do you choose?"   
He threw a gun, which Hunk caught.  
"Us or them. It's quite simple. Choose now"  
Hunk stood there for a moment, looking at the semi-automatic pistol.  
I took a deep breath.  
Choose Hunk. Choose.  
"Leon" he said, pulling the gun up towards me "It was great being with you and the others" then he smiled. It wasn't a disheartening smile. Somehow...I could see...  
"But like Mr. Watts here said..." he continued, and then after a sustained pause "It's over, isn't it?"  
He suddenly spun around and unleashed four bullets into one of his guards, throwing himself to one side as Leon II & Jill II opened fire on him. At this point, Chris pulled the trigger on the other guard, the barrel spitting fire as several bullets tore into the man's body as if he was a rag doll, screaming out as his body jerked before falling to the floor.   
Watts and Frasier cowered back as we exchanged fire with my clone and his sister, bullets tearing holes in the wall and floors as we continued to fill the air with deafening gunfire.  
Somehow, Watts got in the way, and as he stood, dumbfounded and worried, seven bullets tore into his suited back, and he fell to the floor, silently.  
When the gunfire stopped, me, Claire, Chris, Jill and Hunk stood, guns pointed at Leon II and Jill II. Sherry was hiding behind a console, and Frasier cowered against a computer.  
"Okay..." Leon II said, threateningly "...There's a story here, and there can only be one ending...which is to be for our heroes? A gallant death, or a death-defying escape?"   
"I prefer the latter" I replied.  
"Not if I have my way" my clone stepped forwards so far that he was standing right in front of my face. It was like a reflection.  
He pressed his MP5 against me. Mine was hanging by its strap.  
In my pocket...the knife...god my hand hurt...  
He smiled.  
"I think this is where you face the curtain and bow"  
Got a grip...yes...Now bring it out slowly...  
"I don't think so" I said, smiling.  
"What makes you think that?"  
"I'm the one with the knife" I said, simply.  
He looked at me, confused. With as much force as I could muster, I thrust the blade as hard as I could into his chest.  
His face froze with shock. Then blood trickled out of his mouth...and he staggered backwards, clutching his bleeding chest, blood flowing out over his hands.  
Jill II screamed in despair, and fell down to help her stricken partner.  
"Leon! My love...please, don't leave me!" I heard her moan. We stepped closer.  
"Look after it..." Leon II whispered, breaths growing more and more ragged as he slowly died.  
"No...we can escape together..."  
"We won't..." my other self touched his sister (lover?) on the cheek "So beautiful...bring me back..."  
"Yes" she replied, softly. He handed her the container, plus a small silvery disk that she pocketed.  
Then, she hugged him. Then, she said a few words that nearly made me pass out.   
"Your child is inside me" she whispered.  
Yuck...  
Then, with one last gasp, my clone lay back, and his head rolled to one side.  
Jill II cried. We didn't move. Didn't react. Didn't feel any emotion.  
Then, she stood up, eyes burning with rage, and raised her weapon.  
"I'm going...I would kill you...but I can wait...maybe years but believe me I can wait..." she said, voice rigid with anger. Then she ran out of the room, to another exit. It was labelled ROOF.  
A stairway to the roof!  
A way out...  
The missiles! In the heat of the confrontation I'd almost forgotten about them.  
I turned to Frasier, who was trying to crawl away. I grabbed him and hauled him up.  
"Right - We'll ask you again. Give us the disarming key"  
"Okay...okay..." the man gurgled, sticking his hand in his pocket, before pulling out a metal key on a chain, which Chris took.  
"There's more..." the man said "...If you let me go, I'll tell you"  
I dropped him, and he straightened his collar.  
"You have to use a key-card to arm the mechanism that burns and consumes the T-Virus, which I have here. It takes twenty seconds for the entire process to take place - Then you have to verify the various tasks and go through the computer processes - which you can do first, optionally" he looked at his watch "And with less than fives minutes now, you've got a big task on your hands"  
"Gives us the key-card" I said.  
He nodded quickly, knowing that he had four MP5's and one semi-automatic pistol pointing at him, and he gave me the card.  
"Now get out of here" Jill said, coldly.  
The man ran to the nearest wall...and stood there.  
"Standing there for a reason?" Claire asked him.   
"Just...want to see if you do it, that's all" he stammered.  
Soon, we were all in action.  
Eight TV monitors on the wall showed the non-active cameras that were perched on the missiles. All were blank.  
I started on the first one, assisted by Claire.  
It took a full minute for it to verify.  
Chris had taken the key, and was busy unlocking the other missile controls, all built into the front consoles in front of an enormous screen. It wasn't long before we were all hard at the job.  
In six minutes, we had four missiles offline and with the T-Virus burned up and useless.  
We should have watched Frasier.  
We should have turned to see him creep behind one of the consoles and then thump the LAUNCH buttons for all of the working missiles.  
Sherry turned around just as he pressed the buttons.  
"NO!" she yelled.  
We all spun around to see Frasier grinning.  
"Too late" he said "I've launched the missiles. God help you, because nobody else will!" he cried, almost triumphantly.  
"Screw you!!" Claire yelled.  
Then there was a deep rumble.  
"I think" Hunk said "That we're in deep shit"  
There was a deafening roar, and then a flash of fiery light from the windows as the remaining four missiles rose slowly, on a cloud of fire, and then picking up speed, soared up into the early morning sky as we stared out onto the missile silos, smoking and burning in the twilight.  
"MOVE FASTER!!" I yelled, and soon we were hurriedly thumping switches and bringing them offline.   
But the missiles were like speeding bullets. One was destined for impact on LA in two minutes.  
London missile offline...  
I was tired. We were all tired. But we had to save the human race, save the world.  
Tokyo missile offline...Washington missile offline...  
Please, hear my prayer...  
Thirty seconds...  
Error message  
Twenty seconds...  
PLEASE!!!  
BEEP.  
I heard a whoop of joy from Hunk as the final missile came offline.   
We all cheered. We'd done it! We'd saved the world...it was over.  
Except it wasn't.  
Ten minutes until a nuclear missile took Burkitt.  
We had to go.  
"Come on!! To the helipad!!" Chris yelled, and we all ran after him, giddy like school children, and ran up the steps, slamming the door behind us - And as we ran, I heard the pathetic cries of Frasier behind us as he slammed his weight against the door.  
You don't deserve to live. Perish, Frasier.  
We ran out into the early morning, the rain had stopped, and all we had was a cool wind blowing into our faces.  
So fresh...so new...  
There were three helicopters standing there...presumably for the other members of the White Umbrella board...who happened to still be in the base!  
I almost grinned.  
Thine be the Glory, thine be the frigging glory...  
  
Never give up the Escape  
  
We climbed aboard, I fell into a soft seat as Chris began to prepare the helicopter for take off.  
"NOT LONG NOW!!" Claire yelled above the sound of the thumping blades.  
There was a sudden jolt, as Chris brought the helicopter slowly off the concrete roof, and I looked down as the ground disappeared beneath us.  
Then, it was gone completely as we sped away, over the ruined town, over the burning buildings, the rampaging zombies, the lost, the good, the bad, the quick and the dead.   
I didn't feel anything as I looked out of the open door, and then as suddenly as the city was there, it suddenly slipped off into the mountains as we sped away.  
"IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW!!!" Jill yelled above the roar of air.  
Suddenly, there was a burst of blinding white light. We all closed our eyes simultaneously, and looking out of the door as the light faded slightly, I saw an immense mushroom cloud rising from the centre of the city.   
BOOM...  
Fire tore through every single building in Burkitt, the fiery mushroom cloud thundering across the ground...  
But I didn't want to look anymore.  
I turned my back on the town.  
That was the last I ever saw of Burkitt.  
I closed the door.  
I turned to Hunk.  
"What made you decide to join us?"  
He looked at me, and smiled.  
"I decided I wanted you to have a family life"  
I laughed, softly.  
So did Claire.  
"Although I'm afraid I won't be joining you - If you could drop me off somewhere near here, I'd be grateful"  
We all looked on solemnly.  
"So...you're going home?"  
"Yeah" he replied, smiling "I've sort of quit Umbrella - I thought I might develop some morals"  
He grinned.   
I rolled my eyes, and shook my head.  
"Think any good jobs will come your way?"  
"There's always one" he replied, nodding "There's always one"  
I looked at the others. I suddenly felt movement at my side. Sherry was asleep on my arm. I took her hand, tenderly. I had a life to look forward to. A family. My children, in Rebecca's care, were waiting for Claire and me. A family life.  
My new sister smiled at me from across the small passenger space.  
Then, she closed her eyes, and leaned on Chris's shoulder. Chris smiled.   
I leaned back. White Umbrella was destroyed.  
I didn't doubt that Jill's clone would come back - But not now...not for now...  
I held my wife, and smiled at her as we leaned against each other, and fell asleep.  
Soon I was lost in dreams. Good dreams. Dreams of victory and peace.  
At last...  
I could sleep.  
  
We dropped off Hunk a few hours later, by the side of a deserted road.  
We stood outside of the helicopter on the grass by the road, and looked on Hunk as he prepared to hotwire an abandoned car. It was working. It was a little battered, and paint had been scraped off it...but he didn't seem to care.  
He stood up, and walked up to me.   
"So...this is where we go our separate ways"  
"Yeah" I said, and put out my hand "It's been a good one"  
He smiled, and shook my hand, firmly.   
Then, he went down the line, shaking hands.  
"Sorry about that" Chris said, shaking Hunk's hand "I know I was a little hostile..."  
"Don't worry" Hunk replied, waving his hand, dismissing the subject.   
He was about to walk to the car, then he turned back.  
"Hey...you might as well have one of these"  
He threw me something, wrapped in paper.  
Confused, I unwrapped it. Inside was a card. It looked like a credit card.  
"There's about five million in that account" Hunk said, grinning "The pin number's written on the paper, and all you've got to do is register it under your name...I guess our friend Watts was readying an account for his retirement fund. See you all. Take care"  
I looked at the numbers.   
"What do you mean one of-"   
The car engine roared, and as I tried to ask him the question, the car steered onto the road, and shot off down the tarmac strip into the distance.  
That was the last time I ever saw Agent Hunk.   
"We've got something to look forward to" Claire whispered, hugging me. I hugged her back "A life. A family life. One with jobs, taxes, schools, Christmases, holidays...everything..." she smiled at me, and I kissed her on the lips.  
"We got a new life" I said "Now White Umbrella's records of us are all but destroyed - They haven't got anybody to order them around now. We've come out on top"  
I held her there.   
The sun was coming up over the horizon, and golden light played on Claire Kennedy, formerly Claire Redfield as I looked into her eyes. The sun reflected off her beautiful eyes.  
"You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen" I said, softly.  
She smiled.  
"Ditto" she replied, indicating me.  
I kissed her.  
As the sun rose up, two couples enjoyed the early morning. Sherry held onto Claire and me as Chris and Jill embraced.  
Two couples and one girl enjoying their new lives.  
We couldn't wait.  
  
EPILOGUE  
  
Right here, right now  
  
I'm writing this as we speak.  
I'm looking out of the window onto the glistening pool in our back garden, which I can see from the study.  
How long is it? Maybe four months since then?  
I can see Claire with Steve and Ada dabbling their feet in the pool, faces pictures of happiness.   
Sherry is splashing in the pool, laughing as she splashes waves onto the slabs beside the waters edge.  
I'm loving every minute of it. An ordinary family life, would you believe. I'm waiting another couple of months before I try to get another job - I think I deserve a break. It's rather difficult to evaluate all my adventures, beginning with my entrance into Raccoon City and climaxing with my escape from Burkitt. It's been interesting, certainly. Scary, to say the least. It's hardly been fun, and it's been far from exhilarating. Exciting certainly isn't a word I'd use right at this moment. In a way, I'm glad I went through it all - I earned myself a wife, two sisters and two children. My other sister is a couple of blocks away with her husband - Yes, Chris and Jill are married too.  
We've all got enough money to last us for a while. What about the others? Barry's gone back to his family, and Rebecca's living in the neighbourhood too. Waiting for a boyfriend.  
I'm waiting too. What for, I don't know. But neither do I care. What I do know is, with some relish, is that the world doesn't need me anymore. The world doesn't need Leon S. Kennedy.   
I enjoy filling out my credit forms. I enjoy spending time with my family. I love it all. Finally, I can sit back and know that I can live an ordinary existence, just like you as you're reading this.  
Claire's calling to me now, as is Sherry. 'Come on Leon!' they're saying 'Come into the pool!'  
I'm joining them now.  
I suppose you could read all of this, right here, right now and wonder what the hell I'm talking about.  
But don't worry.  
You'll get it.  
Someday.   
  
THE END  
  
  
Authors note: Well, that's the end of The Umbrella Chronicles! Any comments and reviews can be filed to the review section of course!   
I think I may give you a brief history of my fan-fiction trilogy. I started writing Episode 1: Island of Angels (Also on the site) in early 2000. As I write this, It's January 5th 2001. It's taken me a year to write. A whole year I devoted to writing 70+ page stories: Altogether, the page count is some thing in the region of 210 or something like that.   
I first submitted Episode 1 to a Resident Evil website, the Homepage of Resident Evil (which is great, but it's down at the moment) and it got on it, to my delight. I wrote Episode 2, which took somewhat less time I was surprise to find out. I was approximately forty pages into Episode 2 when I discovered Fanfiction.net, registered an account and posted my stories. Thanks to really supportive and fantastic people, I kept writing to the bitter end. Other Resident Evil sites have either been touchy or have rejected my stories in their Fan-fiction sections. And I don't really care anymore. I've got fanfiction.net!   
As for the future, there is a follow up to the Umbrella Chronicles, another trilogy which I am starting to plan as we speak. It will take a while, and it's really only a few ideas at the moment, it will be coming! In the meantime, I may knock out some further RE and more Final Fantasy stories, two of which I have (BASEket Fantasy parts 1 & 2) in the Final Fantasy VIII section if you want to take a look, since they are part of my rare ventures into humour!   
Stay tuned!  
See ya!!   
  
-MARK 'MANIX' ODELL  
  



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